Dennis Horton: BBB works to protect consumers, be fair to businesses

Saturday

Aug 5, 2017 at 10:00 AM

By Dennis HortonBetter Business Bureau

The vision of the Better Business Bureau is to foster an ethical marketplace where buyers and sellers trust each other. Our mission is to be a leader in advancing marketplace trust. We do this in part by:

• Setting standards for marketplace trust.

• Encouraging and supporting best practices by engaging with and educating consumers and businesses.

• Calling out and addressing substandard marketplace behavior.

The BBB monitors the marketplace, and often, reviews the complaints and allegations made by consumers about a specific business. The reviews help to determine whether a business has a “pattern” of complaints and allegations.

We take these obligations seriously. We want to protect consumers — and be fair to businesses. One current case shows how the BBB works.

Previously the BBB did a review of Forest City Water Conditioning, which is owned by William “Bill” Paris. The company was incorporated in Illinois as Rockford Water Conditioning Inc. in October 1992. That corporation has been dissolved. The business has also operated under a number of different names, they include:

• AAA Rockford Water Conditioning

• Conditioned Water – Rockford

• Forest City Companies

• Rockford Water

• Forest City Water

Currently, there are six reportable unanswered complaints listed on the company’s BBB Business Profile. A review of those complaints and allegations indicates a pattern in Forest City Water Conditioning’s marketplace conduct. The issues include:

• Product or replacement equipment installed did not function properly and continued to have problems.

• Consumers attempted to contact the business via phone multiple times, but never received a response.

• After rescheduling multiple times, the owner would not show up to complete repairs or would leave work incomplete.

The review of the complaints showed that five of those filed against the business were done so by senior citizens. To summarize their issues, in some cases, they allege they paid in full for new water softener equipment to be installed. However, what they received was used or rusted equipment. They also claim, in some cases, that installation of their equipment was incomplete. The complainants also allege that Mr. Paris did not respond to phone calls during their attempts to get the problems fixed. Collectively, the individuals who filed complaints reported they lost a combined total of more than $7,200 dollars.

On Jan. 4, the Better Business Bureau of Chicago and Northern Illinois notified Mr. Paris via email and first class mail that the organization had identified a pattern of consumer allegations. The letter requested a plan of action to eliminate the underlying issues causing the complaints and offered assistance if desired.

A second attempt was made on Jan. 13 with the same request and another seven-day time frame. On Jan. 25 a final attempt was made requesting Forest City Water Conditioning respond to the pattern concern and the allegations made by the complainants.

To date, there has been no response to any of these requests.

The BBB does not compare businesses against each other but rather evaluates businesses against BBB standards. The standards speak to the character and competence of a business. It comes down to trust; that’s the basis for the Standards for Trust — a set of best practices for how a business should treat the public in a fair and honest manner. You can review the standards at Askbbb.org.

Dennis Horton is regional director of the Rockford Better Business Bureau, which covers Winnebago, Boone and Stephenson counties among others.